The Relation Between Childhood Experiences and Borderline Personality Symptoms in Non-Clinical Population. The Role of Dissociative Experiences and Invalidating Environment

The aim of the present study was to identify the relationships between traumatic, as well as benevolent childhood experiences and borderline personality symptoms in a non-clinical sample. We also explored the mediating role of dissociative experiences and the moderating role of parental invalidating environments between traumatic, respectively benevolent childhood experiences and borderline personality symptoms. A sample of 326 non-clinical Romanian adults were included in the present study (Mage = 25.58, SD = 6.63). The participants completed scales for measuring childhood experiences, dissociative experiences, invalidating childhood environments and borderline personality symptoms. The results showed that benevolent childhood experiences were associated with lower levels of borderline personality symptoms. Moreover, traumatic childhood experiences positively predicted dissociative symptoms which, further, positively predicted borderline personality symptoms. When analyzing the role of parental behavior, the results showed that only paternal invalidating behavior was positively related to borderline personality symptoms. Furthermore, maternal invalidating behavior moderated the relation between benevolent childhood experiences and borderline personality symptoms. Thus, our findings support the importance of positive childhood experiences in reducing borderline personality symptoms.